Welcome to my share page. Each month I'll try to bring you an enlightening thought, quote or tip. Questions or feedback is always welcome at: roger@imageinations.com

PHOTOSHOP TIP OF THE MONTH

One of the handiest things that Photoshop does is to remove unwanted areas of an image. This can often be blemishes on a face or spots on a print. The latest versions of Photoshop have taken this a step further with Content Aware healing. In this case Photoshop looks around the area to be fixed and fills it in with similar texture from the surrounding area.

First, choose the Spot Healing Brush. This can be hidden behind the Healing Brush which looks like a little Band-Aid. Click on the Healing Brush and hold down to show the Healing Brush choices and choose the Spot Healing Brush. In the tool options bar at the top to the right of Type choose Content Aware.

In the example below I started with a photo of the old Ensonia Hotel in New York City (left image). I just wasn't crazy about the traffic lights and signs at the bottom of the image (highlighted in center image). So, with the Spot Healing Brush set to a medium size and hard edge paint over the areas you want to fix. Be sure to include a little but not too much on the area around the to-be-fixed areas. Photoshop does the rest (right image). If it doesn't work perfectly the first time, adjust the brush size and try again. On each new try Photoshop alters its approach!

original

AREAS TO FIX

ALL GONE

The above will work in both Elements and CS. If you are working with CS-4 or higher you have another way to use Content Aware. Select the area you need to fix with any Selection Tool. Even the freehand Lasso will work. Be sure to include just a little area around the selection. To include more around the selection go to Select>Modify>Expand and choose about 10-15 pixels. Then go to Edit>Fill and in the drop down menu under Contents, Use: choose Content Aware. Blending Mode>Normal at 100%. Hit OK and Bingo! All fixed.

QUOTE OF THE MONTH

The challenge for me has first been to see things as they are, whether a portrait, a city street, or a bouncing ball. In a word, I have tried to be objective. What I mean by objectivity is not the objectivity of a machine, but of a sensible human being with the mystery of personal selection at the heart of it. The second challenge has been to impose order onto the things seen and to supply the visual context and the intellectual framework - that to me is the art of photography. -Bernice Abbott

A photograph is not a painting, a poem, a symphony, a dance. It is not just a pretty picture, not an exercise in contortionist techniques and sheer print quality. It is or should be a significant document, a penetrating statement, which can be described in a very simple term - selectivity. To define selection, one may say that it should be focused on the kind of subject matter which hits you hard with its impact and excites your imagination to the extent that you are forced to take it. Pictures are wasted unless the motive power which impelled you to action is strong and stirring.-Bernice Abbott-Photographers on Photography : A Critical Anthology by Nathan Lyons (Editor) ,

We can always learn from the past. If we truly consider photography an art, there are centuries of evolution that we can look at. One thing to always consider is the "Rule of Thirds." This rule suggests that all important horizontal lines, vertical lines, and relevant objects fall approximately on lines drawn in such a way as to dive our image into thirds. This seems to give a more satisfying composition. On the left the horizon and stone outcropping are both in the center. On the right they are lined up with the rule of thirds. Note that you must focus on your subject and then hold that focus while you reposition your camera. For more on the Rule of Thirds click here.

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